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Ascension Day Ceremony (Live Streaming) 21 May 2020: Your invitation

Welcome. The following is an outline of a planned live streaming Ascension Day Ceremony online, and you’re invited. It’s inclusive! Yes, open to all.

It will take place this Thursday, 21 May 2020 at 8.15 (UK Time) on my FaceBook site.

You can printout the order of ceremony below and join in the liturgy during the Ceremony, or, as you watch the Ceremony, just let it be a form of meditation and let it ‘sink in’ deeply. The Ceremony will be recorded.

The live streaming Ceremony will appear on my FaceBook site [do click here].

Please check now if you’ve got full access to my Facebook site, and, if so, you’ll see some other, previous, videos recorded there. If you don’t see previous video or if you can’t gain full access then press the ‘friends’ link on my Facebook site, I’ll accept as soon as I can. Once I’ve responded do then try my FaceBook site again to see if you can gain access then, in readiness for the live streaming video. If you still can’t get access, or if there’s any ‘challenges’, please email me, at: tadhgtemp@googlemail.com.

I haven’t found a way to put a docx link here to simplify things so you can print out only the Order of the Ceremony – but I’m still working on it. Meanwhile, it maybe best to just print out the following so you can participate, but erase this paragraph and the five above this, before doing so.

ASCENSION DAY CEREMONY: ORDER OF CEREMONY

Thursday, 21 May 2020, at 8.15pm (UK time)
Via Facebook video

GRACE GROVE, LONDON

For this ceremony you may need:• A candle • Safety matches

ASCENSION DAY CEREMONY
Dunstan Rite

Intention And Preface

Our intention, at this time, is to come close, and together, to explore and celebrate the Mystery of the Ascension. The Book tells us that the Christ lead his closest believers to the Mount of Olives, gave them instructions, blessed them and departed.

And so, as we light this candle our inclusive Ceremony begins.

Light the Ascension Day candle. Music may be played.

Reading

The Ascension of Jesus
When he [the Christ] had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God. (Luke 24:50-54, The Book)

Calling The Quarters

Calling the Quarters, as we turn in sequence to face the four cardinal compass points, helps us to become fully present so we can deeply connect to the world around us, and create safe and sacred space for us all.

Facing East
Guardian of the East, Oh Ancient One of the air,
we call upon the Spirit to be with us today.
Come charge this circle with the power of the wind.

All: We welcome you.

Facing South
Guardian of the South, Oh Ancient One of the fire,
we call upon the Spirit to be with us today.
Come charge this circle with the power of the flame

All: We welcome you.

Facing West
Guardian of the West, Oh Ancient One of the waters,
we call upon the Spirit to be with us today.
Come charge this circle with the power of the tides.

All: We welcome you.

Facing North
Guardian of the North, Oh Ancient One of the earth,
we call upon the Spirit to be with us today.
Come charge this circle with the power of the land.

All: We welcome you

From the centre, perhaps adopting the orans posture
Guardian of all, Oh Ancient of Days,
we call upon the Spirit to be with us today.
Come charge this circle with your power.

All: We welcome you

Call For Peace

The call for peace is an affirmation that there is peace amongst us, now; and that peace is offered to the world though not all embrace this, today, but one day will do so.

Is there peace in the East?All: There is peace in the East.

Is there peace in the South?All: There is peace in the South.

Is there peace in the West?All: There is peace in the West.

Is there peace in the North?All: There is peace in the North.

Throughout the entire land there is peace.

The Ancestors Present

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance… and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us… (Hebrews 12:1 pt, The Book)

A Poem. One Person’s View: In A Cloud

In a cloud.
A cloud?
A bit dramatic wasn’t it, Jesus? A bit over the top!
Hands raised.
Floating heavenwards ……
And I’ll lay odds that
future artists
will dress you in shining white,
and paint the sky deep blue –
to ‘match’ your eyes.
OK – so there were some precedents:
Elijah and his chariots
and that fiery cloudy pillar thing that moved around the wilderness; but those were the old ways –
you aren’t like that.
Is this really what you want us to remember about you, Jesus? That you disappeared in a cloud
and that you now live somewhere above the skies,
way beyond our reach?
What about your stories, your friendship; your tears, your pain, your laughter?
What about the way you believed in us, trusted us,
sent us out to teach and heal?
I’m not sure that you being alive somewhere where we cannot see you, talk with you, laugh and cry with you,
is going to be much help to us, Jesus.
Please, can’t you find a way of living with us,
close enough somehow for us to know that you’re near?
You said something once about a Spirit,
a holy Spirit from God,
who would come to us.
Does that mean you’re coming back to us?

And if you are –
no dramatics this time, please Jesus. Just come back to us quietly …
No more clouds!

Help us to see.
‘Why do you stand looking up towards heaven?’ (Acts 1:10–11a)
We look for you,
straining our eyes
into the far country,
but our vision is disrupted by the least, the lost,
the littlest, the last among us.
We race after you, trying to catch up, and turning the corner find only
a homeless family
in our path.
We wander the streets, yearning to find you, calling your name,
but it is only
a single mother who turns and wearily smiles,
a street person
who whispers ‘hello’,
a little girl who pirouettes and takes our hand.
Gone …
But you are still here, Lord. Help us to see.

The Source of All, full of wisdom and grace, in the Christ at the time of the His Ascension also raised up humanity, and this is what some know as the hypostatic union. The most basic explanation for the hypostatic union is that the Christ is both God and man. He is both perfectly and fully divine, and perfectly and fully human.

C S Lewis wrote: ‘God did not dress up in a human body and then discard this at death, returning to some preferable spiritual state. God’s hypostatic union to creation is permanent. Christ retains his full, created, creaturely humanity in the resurrection. [In the Ascension]. Including his body.

The Ascension proclaims and celebrates [the fact that the] Christ takes this creation [up] into the full presence of God.

The metaphorical language of “up” must never allow for an escapist spirituality. If we do not find God in our everyday life of work, sport, friends, food, music, nature, bodies,… we do not find God at all.’

Additional words of explanation may be used here

Ancient Reflection On The Ascension

The following is an ancient poem written by Cynewulf, an Anglo-Saxon who lived during the eighth century. His name means ‘kin of the wolf’, and it is thought he may be Cynewulf of Lindisfarne (who died around AD780). And so from more then 1200 years ago we read his poem, his message to us:

Music may be played

Then suddenly was a loud voice heard
upon the breeze. A throng of heavenly angels,
a shining squadron, heralds of glory flocked
crowding down. Our King departed
through the temple roof where they looked,
those who still remained in the trace of their beloved
in that place of assembly, his chosen thanes. (491-97)

They saw their Lord mount up to the heights,
the God-Child from the ground. Their minds were sad,
hot about the heart, thoughts mourning
for they would never again be allowed
to see their loved lord any longer under the skies.
The heralds hove up a song, of the kindred above,
praising that noble one, celebrating
the Origin of Life, rejoicing in the light
which illuminated the head of the Savior. (498-505)

They saw two all-bright angels beautifully
agleam with adornments about that First-Child,
the Glory of Kings. They called down from the heights
with wrought words across the multitude of men
with a bright voice: “What are you waiting for,
people of Galilee in a circle? You may clearly
see the True Lord travelling into the skies—
the Owner of Victories will ascend upwards from here
to his new home, the Start of Nobility,
with his company of angels, the Origin
of Humanity, to the homeland of his Father.” (506-16)

The Ascension (Christ II)
Christ II (aka The Ascension) by Cynewulf

Prayer For Those In Need

Great Comforter of All, we pray for all people who are in trouble and fear today:

For those who are sad because someone they have loved has died

For those who are anxious because they are unwell, stressed or in pain

For those who are lonely because someone they love is not there for them.

For those for whom work is exhausting or emotionally draining.

For those who are struggling with finances or are facing the prospect of unemployment

Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,
May the relief of laughter rinse through our soul.

As the wind loves to call things to dance,
May our gravity be lightened by grace.

Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,
May our thoughts incline with reverence and respect.

As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may we be about who to become.

As silence smiles on the other side of what’s said,
May our sense of irony bring perspective.

As time remains free of all that it frames,
May our mind stay clear of all it names.

And, may our prayer of listening deepen enough
to hear in the depths the laughter of God.

(John O’Donohue, adapted)

Prayer For Creation

God of creation, who loves all that is made and all that has evolved,
open our eyes,
that your love might be reflected in our care for the planet.
Through the One who walked this earth and calls us by name.

The Ascension: Significance

The Ascension, then, is the moment in history where the Christ in all his physical, bodily humanity, returns to the presence of God. It is the beginning of the reversal of any separation, real or perceived, as our representative of humankind is bodily dwelling again with God. The Christ and His glorious return to heaven paves the way for a reborn humanity, of which we are members, and this is only the beginning. That is why Ascension Day is significant, and more so that it is a ‘gift’ that is beyond the keeping of any one tribe or people, beyond the bounds of any one religion. It is, in every age, for all. It makes earth a truly Eucharistic planet.

Closing Words

What do you mean by saying,
“He ascended to heaven”?

That Christ,
while his disciples watched,
was lifted up from the earth to heaven
and will be there for our good
until he comes again
to judge the living and the dead.
But isn’t Christ with us
until the end of the world
as he promised us?

Christ is truly human and truly God.
In his human nature Christ is not now on earth;
but in his divinity, majesty grace, and Spirit
he is not absent from us for a moment.

Closing The Quarters

Facing East
Guardian of the East, Oh Ancient One of the air,
we thank you for your presence with us today.

All: We thank you.

Facing South
Guardian of the South, Oh Ancient One of the fire,
we thank you for your presence with us today.

All: We thank you.

Facing West
Guardian of the West, Oh Ancient One of the waters,
we thank you for your presence with us today.All: We thank you.

Facing North
Guardian of the North, Oh Ancient One of the earth,
we thank you for your presence with us today..

All: We thank you.

From the centre, perhaps adopting the orans posture
Guardian of all, Oh Ancient of Days,
we thank you for your presence with us today.

All: We thank you.

Final Blessing

Music may be played.

May you who believe in the Ascended One, also in heart and mind there ascend, and with the Christ continually dwell

And the grace of the Triune God, be upon you and remain forever with you and those whom you love. Amen.